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Price basks in glory amid Jays faithful

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Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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August 4, 2015 • 5 minute read

Newly minted Blue Jays pitcher David Price was an instant hit with fans as more than 45,000 applauded his 11-strikeout effort in Toronto Monday. The Jays beat the Minnesota Twins 5-1.Peter J. Thompson, National Post/ National Post

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It has been almost a generation since a Toronto Blue Jays player had reason to talk this way, and almost a generation since Blue Jays fans had reason to reciprocate.

Granted, perhaps there was a tinge of hyperbole in David Price’s words, on a day when hope soared in the hearts of just about everyone who cares about this team. But Price, the new kid on the block, says he got back as much as he gave on Monday.

“That,” he said, “was the best atmosphere I’ve ever been in.”

For the Jays, their fans and their new ace, it was pure synergy, which is the word R.A. Dickey used to describe the rollicking ambience on Sunday, when a huge crowd also packed the Rogers Centre to watch him pitch in a dramatic Jays’ victory.

On Monday, a sellout holiday gathering of 45,756 came to see the Blue Jays debut of Price, the six-foot-six lefty with the smile almost as wide as he is tall. He delivered a storybook performance that featured a few shaky moments, a Houdini-like escape and a stretch of dominance – 15 straight batters retired – that kept the fans on their feet for much of the final three innings.

By the end, after he had struck out 11 Minnesota Twins and allowed a mere three hits in eight innings, and after the Jays had won 5-1, the fans kept standing and applauding. When Price finished an on-field TV interview, they cheered him again, and he waved back, clapping above his head, and when he was gone, they kept standing, as though they didn’t want it to end.

“I’ve pitched in really big games,” he said afterward. “Game 163 in Texas to go to the playoffs (in 2013). In (Boston’s Fenway Park), it’s an amazing atmosphere always. At the Trop (Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., home of the Tampa Bay Rays) in 2008 when we were in the playoffs with the cowbells and the dome, that was really loud. Baltimore last year with Detroit (in the playoffs), that was insane, and then Comerica (Park) as well. … But that atmosphere (Monday), that takes the cake. I’ve never experienced

anything like that.

That was cool.”

Never has a pitcher come to Toronto in an in-season trade and been immediately anointed as a saviour. But then, the Jays have never before acquired a pitcher of Price’s calibre during a season. That his arrival quickly followed a trade for the game’s top shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, only heightened the buzz.

And on the long weekend, the buzz became a roar. “People showed up for a good reason, to see David,” said Josh Donaldson, whose two-run homer gave the Jays their first lead at 3-1 in the fifth. “That guy’s a horse. That’s what you expected to see out of him. And it’s hard when you have those expectations to go out there and do it, but he did just that.”

Price gave up a homer to Torii Hunter in the second, but Ryan Goins – “I’m always surprised when I hit a home run” – matched that in the bottom half of the inning. In the fourth inning, the crowd turned quiet as Price gave up a leadoff double and two walks to load the bases. (“He’s not invincible,” manager John Gibbons had cautioned before the game.)

The next batter, Eddie Rosario, hit a soft, menacing pop-up into short centre field. Three defenders converged. Tulowitzki, impossibly tall for a shortstop, raced back, reached up and made a one-handed catch, then unleashed a throw that kept the runners in place.

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Price caught the next batter, Aaron Hicks, looking at a third strike. Two outs. His eighth pitch to Kurt Suzuki, and 30th pitch of the inning, was a 97-mph fastball. Swing and miss.

Price threw back his head, gritted his teeth and pounded his glove in triumph. As the crowd erupted, the stadium shook.

He had thrown 75 pitches in four innings, a bad omen for some pitchers. He needed only 43 to get through the next four. Nobody reached base. The Jays scored twice in the seventh and won in a breeze. “There’s different classes of pitchers in the league,” Gibbons said. “Anybody that’s a starting pitcher in the big leagues is good. And then there’s guys that kind of separate themselves. David’s at the top. He’s one of those guys. That’s what they do.”

How times have changed for the Jays. In spring training 2014, they were passing the hat among their five toppaid players, asking them to defer some salary in order to make a $14-million US offer to free agent Ervin Santana. On Monday, Santana started for the Twins against Price, who is making nearly $20 million this year, and a Jays lineup that included a multitude of additional millions for such recently added stars as Tulowitzki, Donaldson and Russell Martin.

To get a dozen or so starts from Price, the Jays are on the hook for roughly onethird of his salary. That, suddenly, seems no impediment to the team’s plans. In the fantasy world suddenly prevalent among fans, his arrival is the capstone for a team now destined for the playoffs. For the players, Price provides “another level of confidence in ourselves,” Donaldson said.

The victory pulled the Jays into a tie with the Twins for the second wild-card spot behind the Angels.

After the game, Price praised Martin, his catcher, for preparing well. Martin spent 45 minutes in the video room studying Price’s pitching patterns. In their work together, “he was spot-on,” Price said. More synergy.

Even before the game, he had made his mark with fans, and not just by reputation. When he saw a Twitter photo of a young boy with “PRICE” taped to the back of a Jays jersey, he took to Twitter to locate the kid and give him an authentic version. He gave the kid’s friend one, too.

On Monday, the cheering started well before the seats were full, as he loosened up on the outfield warning track. He looked up, and smiled, and patted his chest in appreciation. And the fans kept it up all day. “They showed me a tremendous amount of support today, and I’ve got to acknowledge that,” he said after the stadium finally emptied. This is the type of atmosphere you grow up wanting to be in.”

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